This is a waiting period in the Philadelphia sports calendar. The Eagles are coming off a dominant Super Bowl win, but won't take the practice field for a couple of months. The Sixers and Flyers are stuck. The Phillies are a few weeks from Opening Day.
To keep our juices going, PhillyVoice is taking a look at the worst (and, soon, the best) lineups of the past 10 years for these four squads. On Monday, managing sports editor Evan Macy handled the worst the Phillies put up during some extremely lean years. Now, I'll tackle the Birds, which, admittedly, is a much tougher task.
The Eagles, even with a few very frustrating seasons in the mix, have been typically good during this span that includes two championships. Even during the low points, the roster remained talented as other issues popped up. It'd be difficult to concoct a long list of bad Eagles gameday lineups, but one in particular truly stands out in my mind where, as I watched on TV during the pandemic, I thought, "Wow, this team really sucks."
I'm talking about the Birds' disastrous 2020 campaign where they finished 4-11-1. It was a hellacious season that saw the end of the Carson Wentz/Doug Pederson era, but ultimately gave way to the Jalen Hurts/Nick Sirianni era. Even during rough moments, there have been silver linings for this franchise that have brought it back to championship contention.
Anyway, the one game that sticks out in my mind most is the Eagles' home loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 6. The Ravens were billed as juggernauts going into that season and Lamar Jackson was the reigning NFL MVP. The Birds actually put up a valiant fight in this one with a 22-point fourth quarter performance, but the first gigantic chunk of the game was torturous to watch.
Why? Well, let's look at the starting lineup for the day according to pro-football-reference:
Offense
QB: Carson Wentz
RB: Miles Sanders
WR: Greg Ward
WR: Travis Fulgham
WR: John Hightower
TE: Zach Ertz
OT: Jack Driscoll
OT: Jordan Mailata
OG: Nate Herbig
OG: Jamon Brown
C: Jason Kelce
Defense
DE: Brandon Graham
DE: Derek Barnett
DT: Malik Jackson
DT: Fletcher Cox
LB: Nathan Gerry
LB: Alex Singleton
CB: Nickel Robey-Coleman
CB: Darius Slay
DB: Will Parks
S: Rodney McLeod
S: Jalen Mills
Remember when the Eagles had horrendous wide receiver, linebacker and slot cornerback play? That was a constant for a while, but that's no longer the case. Now the fan base is spoiled with the likes of A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Zack Baun and Cooper DeJean.
What most stands out from this lineup, however, is the offensive line and how they looked this game. The Eagles have won the Super Bowl twice in franchise history. In both seasons, they had the best offensive line in the league, including perhaps the best tackle overall in Lane Johnson. Johnson was absent from this one. As his been the case in his future Hall of Fame career, as Johnson goes, so too do the Eagles.
Kelce, a future Hall of Famer in his own right, is there, but the rest of the group is a mixed bag to say the least. Jordan Mailata has powered up into an All-Pro, but that was his first season of legitimate NFL action and there were ups and downs before he became the player he currently is. Driscoll and Herbig were fine backups for the Birds, but not entirely starting caliber players. Brown, in his lone start with the Eagles, was a disaster.
There was the infamous moment where he fixed his gloves in the middle of a play while pressure batted down upon Wentz:
I need Jamon Brown off this team pic.twitter.com/wFBajXwBrd
— Pierre (@PierreB3_) October 19, 2020
He almost sacked Wentz at one point, too:
Heard a lot of people Trashing Jamon Brown but y’all all clearly forgot his 0.5 Sack in his first Start as an eagle…STUD pic.twitter.com/F2slmOUMY9
— . (@DanteBabyyy) October 19, 2020
Not great!
There's a reason the Eagles have continuously prioritized trench play when constructing their roster for the past quarter of a century. When the o-line and d-line are both humming, this is a Super Bowl team. When they're not, things take a sharp downward turn.
The loss dropped the Birds to 1-4-1, but, hey, they would soon rise from the ashes like a phoenix and reel off four consecutive playoff appearances, including last month's Super Bowl parade celebration.
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